Review : This is the dark story of a once-famous boxer called Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro) who remains an irresponsible child at heart, hence the title. TIME recently included it in its top 100 movies of all time, as had the American Film Institute(rank 21-ish I think). With such critical acclaim bestowed upon it, it must have an amazing, intricate plot, right? Wrong! The film has almost no plot :not-so-rich but talented Italian guy in the fifties becomes a star player, marries a hot blonde girl, accuses her of infidelity all the time, wrecks his career, marriage and relationship with his brother(Joe Pesci, who is awesome), goes to jail for (unwittingly) having sex with a 14-year-old girl and ends up as a stand-up comedian in a run-down club. So why do people watch it?
Reason 1: ROBERT deNIRO and his Oscar-winning performance. If this had not won an Oscar, the reputation of the Oscars would have suffered. It is the role which proves why deNiro is better than Pacino. Almost everyone who has seen the film agrees that you do not even see him in the movie, which is remarkable considering he gained 50 pounds for it. The person you see is Jake LaMotta.
Reason 2: MARTIN SCORCESE’S amazing directing and reason 3 , the BEAUTIFUL CINEMATOGRAPHY. The film is black-and-white, except for a short collage in which snippets from Jake’s marriage’s happier days are seen. The film is beautiful, creating the atmosphere of a high charged sports event during the gritty boxing scenes and an air of solitary introspection during deNiro’s parting shot at the end of the film, a speech from On the Waterfront(’’I coulda been a contender’’).
Reason 4: BEJEWELLED SCENES like the one where Jake destroys a handsome contender, after his wife called him ’’just a pretty boy’’. ’’He ain’t pretty no more’’, as one in the audience said. Or the one where he grabs hold of the ringside rope, refusing to let go even when Sugar Ray is clobbering him. (’’You never knocked me down’’) While you revile Jake throughout the movie, you develop a cold sympathy for him. He is a guy, who never saw beyond the horizon and let his life tear to pieces. He was blind to his own needs and careless with others’. He never really knew what he stood for: Raging bulla ki jaana main kaun hoon?